#driinkingproblem

-G

Marlene had never seen the inside of a boys’ clothes shop before and she hadn’t really been planning to do that. What would she possibly be doing there, anyway? It was not like she was going to look for clothes for herself or any of her friends she usually went shopping with. Yes, usually. But usually was definitely not the right word in this situation, actually, she would rather use unusual. It had started out to be a normal day. She went to school with Lynn and Uriah and she had decided to stay at school until late so she could study in peace when Uriah asked her if she wanted to do anything fun with him. She had not seen his question coming — it felt like he was asking her out. On a date. When she remained silent and stared up at him in astonishment, he asked her what she did for fun with her friends. The best thing that she could come up with, was, “Oh, we go shopping a lot.” And ziplining. And we go to the park and we practise target shooting and we pull pranks on people we don’t like and a lot of other Dauntless stuff. But she had to come up with shopping instead of any of those things. Uriah didn’t seem to mind, though. After having some Dauntless cake after school he practically dragged her along to a shop Marlene hadn’t ever paid attention to. Now she was standing in the middle of this shop, staring around her somewhat cluelessly. Uriah, who stood next to her, asked, “well, what do you think?” “About what?” she asked and frowned her forehead. So many black and grey clothes — she felt very out of place in the shop with her blonde hair and red scarf. “Because I know what I think you should try on — like, everything. Everything will look great on you.” Why are you suddenly so forward, Marlene? Way to go. “Does that mean you like all the clothes, or does that mean you think I look good because all the clothes will look good on me?” Uriah asked, suddenly sounding very Erudite. He gave her his wide, amused smile, Marlene’s favorite, and gave her an asking expression before walking over to a rack with jackets. Marlene stared at him for a few seconds before she seemingly woke out of her daydream in which Uriah asked her what he should wear today while he was shirtless (like she would be able to produce a normal answer). She shook her head and quickly walked after him. “I think…” Marlene spoke thoughtfully. She looked at the jackets and picked one, which she handed over to Uriah. “This one. Oh, and you should try wearing it with this shirt.” She also gave him a grey shirt — Marlene personally thought that wearing black only was boring: she liked to add some color to her outfits and therefore also to Uriah’s outfits if she were to pick them. “Go try it on!” she said enthusiastic.Uriah left off to the dressing room and the image of him shirtless in front of her asking for advice on clothing suddenly appeared again. Something was definitely wrong with that brain of hers. Dauntless, but craving for books to reads and a certain boy to stare at, what was up with that, anyway. She felt like the result of her aptitude test could literally be anything. Screw it, Marlene thought. She walked over to the dressing room as well, ignored the salesman who told her she couldn’t be there and walked right over to Uriah. “You’re shirtless,” she concluded after staring at him. Are you sure you could be an Erudite, Marlene? Uriah’s look told her he didn’t quite understand what she was doing here, so she explained. “I just needed to see it. And I think you should be just fine without clothes, since you look good enough without them on.” “Oh, really?” Uriah asked: he seemed amused. Marlene nodded. “If so, then why couldn’t you tell me that before you suggested to go shopping? Because if you —” Uriah was speaking his mind, it was like he was telling her every thought that shot through his head since the moment she walked in, very Candor like. Marlene decided to shut him up. She took a step forward and pressed her lips against his in the midst of his sentence. It worked: Uriah shut up and it was very quiet in the dressing room until the salesman walked in and tore the couple apart by demaning Marlene to get out of the dressingroom."Let’s buy you these clothes and go on a real date. Go ziplining or something else stupidly Dauntless," Marlene suggested when Uriah came out of the dressing room after he put his clothes back on. "I mean, we both know I’m not allowed to go here anymore," both Uriah and her laughed. 

"Okay. Down to business– I nominate Marlene, Zeke, Uriah, Christina and Eric." She grinned. "And, why not, Harry. You have twenty four hours."

Marlene was on her way towards the train station. On her way? No, actually she had barely made it off the school grounds. She stayed in until late because she was working on homework. She couldn’t do that at Dauntless because she always got distracted by everything there: Dauntless was not a place to do Erudite things, that was for sure. She walked through the streets of the city, deep in thoughts, just minding her own business. It was busy around this time: everybody seemed to want to get home quickly. The Abnegation were waiting for the bus and Marlene spotted some Candors leaving the building of justice. And then, there was — Uriah?!She hurried her way over to the justice building, meanwhile excusing herself for running into two seemingly annoyed Amity members - way to be friendly. When she came closer she saw that he was accompanied by two Candors and three Dauntless initiates. She recognized two of them from the initiation last year. Apparently they were the newest additions to the police. Uriah definitely was in trouble. “Hey, what’s going on?” Marlene asked Uriah. He gave her a sad glare with puppydog-eyes, like he knew that Marlene couldn’t resist those, and wanted to answer her — but one of the two new initiaties talked before he could say anything to her. “Are you his lawyer?” I’m from your faction, you bloody idiot. Black clothes, earrings, a visible scar on the left hand — ringing a bell yet? Marlene nodded. She was Dauntless, after all. "Well, what is going on here?” She tried to sound as demaning as possible. She had once seen a Candor lawyer at work when she had sneaked into the justice buiding alongside Lynn and what she remembered was that he came across very strong and he knew what he wanted and how he was going to get it. She was going to have to pull that off.Uriah looked at her like he was going to kill her if he got out of this situation alive, but Marlene ignored her client and instead focussed on the police officer telling her what he caught Uriah doing. “This boy here was climbing on the building of justice!” And why was that a problem? We climb on things all the time, how are you not used to that. One of the two Candors nodded heavily. “We were just working on a very important, secret case when we saw him hanging in front of the window. He could’ve been eavesdropping!”"Well, was the window open?" Marlene asked. She wanted to roll her eyes and tell this person he was a bloody idiot, but that didn’t seem too professional. "Because if the window was closed, there is a 99.9 percent change that he didn’t hear anything." She folded her arms over one another. "We could just ask the boy if he heard anything. And if he didn’t, there is not a problem. Is that correct, gentleman?" She gazed towards the three policemen.The oldest one of the three hesitated briefly before he nodded. “That is correct, indeed.” Marlene never thought she would use the fact that she looked older than she was for pretending she was an initiate — especially not an initiate from Candor. She turned her gaze back to Uriah and asked: ”Well? Did you hear a word of what these people said, Uriah?” He shook his head."Well, in that case we are done here. Thank you for your time, gentleman. And you shouldn’t climb up to the justice building anymore, mister Pedrad." With those words Marlene shook the other Candors’ and the Dauntless’ hands, like she always saw the other Candors doing, and left alongside Uriah. “Marlene, what were you thinking?” Uriah groaned as soon as they crossed the street. “I was doing a fine job talking myself out of trouble. I didn’t need you.”"I don’t really care what you need or do not need. I just wasn’t looking forward to hearing the story how Zeke had to pick you up from the police station over and over again." She just shrugged her shoulders. "Can you believe the Candors didn’t even realise I was not one of them? Apparently you really only become a member of a faction once you pass initiation.""I can’t believe you pulled it off," Uriah already sounded less annoyed. “Me neither.”